Unhealthy Obsessions with Measurements

There are definite instances when accurate measurements are helpful and necessary.  One need only to think of architecture and home repair.  It is equally certain, however, that there are just as many, if not more, instances when measurements can be wholly unhealthy and even harmful. 

One need only think of a young girl obsessed with her weight.  If one loses weight to maintain health and exercises to build strength, one may take measurements to chart progress and provide a sense of accomplishment.  If one, however, obsesses over every calorie, exercises to or beyond a breaking point or develops an eating disorder, measurements have become more a sign of sickness than health.  If one is made to feel fat and pressured to lose weight then that is unhealthy.  If one tries to reach a body weight that is wholly impractical for a given body type, then that is wholly detrimental. 

If one takes tests in school and the teacher uses it as one measure to chart a student's progress and/or help in areas of deficiency, then that can be helpful.  If the state, however, is using politically manufactured tests to terrorize little children and make them feel incompetent, then that is unhealthy.  Children develop at different rates.  They have different talents.  Some talents will never be measured by any test, but teachers will observe them in the classroom.  And, then, some children will never function well under testing conditions.  Some children will be falsely labeled as failures.

If tests are used to terrorize teachers and hold schools hostage to senseless reams of data that speak more about issues outside the school than in, then that is a crime.  If the tests force teachers to make test prep their final goal rather than the overall intellectual and social growth of their students, then that is entirely sad.

There are people who think great works of literature can be reduced to numbers or lexiles.  I am sure there are people who will do this with other forms of artistic composition, including painting and music.  There are people seeking to measure "grit."  I am sure there are people who would try to measure human love.  I will not attempt to measure their stupidity.  I think we can all agree some things are better left unmeasured.